[mythtv-users] PVR-250 quality

Brian Foddy bfoddy at visi.com
Wed May 21 11:59:59 EDT 2003


You're asking a very subjective question.  I have a PVR250 and
2 WinTV 401 cards in the same machine.  Right now, the
PVR is my 3rd card in priority for a couple reasons...
1.  Support is still in the experimental stage, but stable.
2.  I can't change the capture resolution on this card
different than the 401s; I need to do this because of
cpu performance limitations and also because I haven't 
hacked the code to allow multiple profiles yet.  As such
the quality of the PVR at 640x240 is much lower than
at something like 480x480, it seems much worse than
the 401s at the same resolution.

The good side is the recording CPU resources are almost
nill, making it much more likely you can handle multiple
cards (although multiple PVRs is still very experimental I 
think), or a much slower cpu with 1 card.  My P2-450 finally
hits a limit of 592x480 for playback, but that's much
higher than the 401s can record.

The sound quality is good, but the 401s support btaudio
so they have very good quality also.

In summary, its pretty clear to me the PVR cards will only get
better in the months to come.  The classic dumb cards are
pretty static.  So if you are looking for a slam-dumk
drop in card you won't have to be messing with, the
PVRs are probably not the way to go; especially considering
their extra cost.  If you are willing to go through the 
growing pains to and perhaps get a better final solution,
they become much more attractive.  Or you can start with
a classic card and add the pvr at a later time either as
a second card, or replacement.

BTW...  IMHO, people are making a mistake to not build
a machine(s)/system that can support multiple cards.
Having 3 cards in my machine gives it sooo much more
flexibility.

Brian

On Wed, 21 May 2003 jungle at saphire.dk wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> I was wondering if anyone could point me to sources that describe the
> quality of the mentioned card, and MythTV's support for it, and if it
> really is worth the price of it. Anyone with any experience with it?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Kim Pedersen
> 
> --
> Value your freedom!
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users at snowman.net
> http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> 
> 



More information about the mythtv-users mailing list